Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

The extensively revised and completely updated second edition of this popular textbook provides LIS practitioners and students with a vital guide to the organization of information. After a broad overview of the concept and its role in human endeavors, Taylor proceeds to a detailed and insightful discussion of such basic retrieval tools as bibliographies, catalogs, indexes, finding aids, registers, databases, major bibliographic utilities, and other organizing entities. After tracing the development of the organization of recorded information in Western civilization from 2000 B.C.E. to the present, the author addresses topics that include encoding standards (MARC, SGML, and various DTDs), metadata (description, access, and access control), verbal subject analysis including controlled vocabularies and ontologies, classification theory and methodology, arrangement and display, and system design.

Review

An excellent introductory textbook for undergraduates with little or no knowlede of organizational practices.Reference &User Services Quarterly

Review

Arlene Taylor's The Organization of Information, which should be considered a classic text in the field, combines to-the-point, articulate discussion with explicit concrete examples relevant to the multiple concerns addressed by the title. ...a classic survey of how information is organized. It is rich in its clarity of description and indispensable for those wishing to gain a general, thorough knowledge and I recommend adding it to your collection.Journal of Access Services

Synopsis

Provides a detailed and insightful discussion of such basic retrieval tools as bibliographies, catalogs, indexes, finding aids, registers, databases, major bibliographic utilities, and other organizing entities.

Synopsis

The extensively revised and completely updated second edition of this popular textbook provides LIS practitioners and students with a vital guide to the organization of information. After a broad overview of the concept and its role in human endeavors, Taylor proceeds to a detailed and insightful discussion of such basic retrieval tools as bibliographies, catalogs, indexes, finding aids, registers, databases, major bibliographic utilities, and other organizing entities. After tracing the development of the organization of recorded information in Western civilization from 2000 B.C.E. to the present, the author addresses topics that include encoding standards (MARC, SGML, and various DTDs), metadata (description, access, and access control), verbal subject analysis including controlled vocabularies and ontologies, classification theory and methodology, arrangement and display, and system design.

About the Author

ARLENE G. TAYLOR is professor emerita, School of Information Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, and author of several works on cataloging and classification and authority control. She has received ALA's Margaret Mann Citation in Cataloging and Classification and the ALA Highsmith Library Literature Award.